Interior Examination
As we begin to examine the interior of the Cooler Master Stacker 830 it is critical to note that the brass standoffs used in this fantastic case are not standard; they are longer than you would normally expect so whatever you do, don’t lose any extra’s as you may need them in the future.
Cooler Master packs quite a thick installation manual along with each Stacker 830 and this is one case where you’ll need to refer back to the guide from time to time. Above is a shot of the installation guide.
Once you have removed the side panel, the first thing you are faced with is the plastic fan panel that has the capacity to hold four 120 mm fans, Cooler Master’s Cross-Flow Fan, or just about any mix of fans you can think of.
Before we open the fan panel, please notice the black slides on each drive bay. Installing a drive is as simple as mounting the drive making sure that the drives screw holes line up with the guide, then push the slides forward (on both sides), this action locks your drive in place without using any screws.
The area without the black sides holds the 4 in 3 hard drive module and is the only place you’ll use screws. First to mount your hard drives and second, to physically hold the module in place, the unit is held in place by two screws on each side.
Getting back to the fan panel, our next photo shows it swung open with two 120 mm fans mounted and Cooler Master’s Cross-Flow Fan that we mentioned earlier. The reason for the mix is to show you there are numerous combinations that can be used and that you are not limited to four 120 mm fans.
The fan panel is easy to remove. There are two swivel hinge pins, one at the top and one at the bottom. Move the lever towards you, press down and presto, you’ve removed the fan panel.
Many of you will say, “Nine 120 mm fans, that’s overkill” while still others will say, “The noise is deafening”; I guess it really depends on the amount of cooling a particular system requires. Personally, I’ve been running an AMD64 4000+ system with the fan panel removed so that means three 120 mm fans in place; one front, one rear and one top exhaust. And my system hasn’t gone over 38C.
If there was one case that could get away without having a slide-out removable motherboard tray it would be the Cooler Master Stacker 830, but thankfully it has one anyway!!
Cooler Master has always had the very best slide-out motherboard trays, and this one is no exception, with the top and bottom lined with black plastic for ease of insertion and removal. In the corners you can see the standard Cooler Master Corner braces, which help prevent the warping of the motherboard during heavy usage.
The photo below is Cooler Master’s cut away view of the Stacker 830 showing the tray, side panel, fan panel and front door removed, we’re including it here to give you an overall view of how the Stacker 830 comes together.
Okay, now let’s get back to the interior of this gargantuan case called the Cooler Master Stacker 830. As you can see below, the Stacker 830 has enough standoff placements to accommodate just about any motherboard on the market today and you can also see some of the wiring for the top mounted access ports hanging down. There is more wiring that cannot be seen in this photo. But, if you look closely, you’ll see that the wiring has been covered in black nylon mesh, one of the mod’s we are making in the Stacker 830.
In our next view below, you can see a number of things including the rest of the wiring which we’ve already taken care of. In the lower drive bays is the ‘steel’ 4 in 3 hard drive bay (I still don’t like it), also note the notches in the aluminum support beam (vertical) that match the clear plastic nibs on the fan panel. This is the locking mechanism to keep the fan panel in place during operation.
The photo below shows the expansion card dust covers held in position by standard Cooler Master Thumbscrews. Now remember, we are only showing the ATX form factor as seen below and not the BTX form factor.
Cooler Master seems to have gone out of its way to make the Stacker 830 screw-less, but yet, here in the expansion card area they maintain the use of thumbscrews, while other manufactures have replaced screws here as well, odd!
This completes the basic view of the Cooler Master Stacker 830, including the modification of covering all the interior wiring with black nylon mesh. In our title we declare, ‘Slightly Modified’ what do we mean?? Read on!
